Beckys Blog

This month, I am trying to do a better job utilizing what God provides instead of buying so much.  This week, I have an over abundance of tomatoes and I don't have time to can them.  I have so many they are starting to go bad before I can get to them.  So last night, we had spaghetti for dinner.  I made our sauce from scratch with the tomatoes in my garden.  To make my sauce as inexpensive as possible, I only used 1 lb of meat (usually use 2) and added grated zucchini as a filler (also from my garden).  It turned out absolutely delicious.  We ate it with home canned cherries and home canned carrots.  So I spent no money on dinner tonight.  Everything was either in my garden, freezer, or pantry.  (Technically we did buy 1/4 of a cow back in July to put in the freezer, that is why I don't have to buy meat each week.)   That only utilized about 1/3 of the tomatoes I had, so today I am making beef stew.  I usually put 1 jar ...

For the month of October I have created a challenge for myself.  That challenge is to spend as little as possible on food without sacrificing balance and nutrition.  The goal is for me to be more on top of meal planning and more creative with inexpensive meals, as well as getting better at utilizing our pantry and freezer foods.  It is not uncommon for me to plan meals for a week without even looking to see what we might already have in the pantry. In a typical month, we spend between $450 and $500 on food for my family of 6 (5 who actually eat).  I'm excited to try to spend LESS!  I just finished grocery planning and shopping for the first week of October, and spent $38 for the week.  There are some things like milk and bananas that just don't keep in the pantry, along with some baking necessities that we needed.  Here is my plan for the week: Breakfast - oatmeal, cheerios, or smoothies.  We have lots of frozen cherries and blueberries from u...

I've really enjoyed going back and reading my old blog posts from when the kids were younger lately.  I've decided I want to try to use this blog as a daily journal (or almost daily).  I will post thoughts, what we are doing, Bible verses, and all sorts of things along with the occasional picture.  For my first post in my new journal / blog, I wanted to post my typical daily schedule.  That way, if I post what I have done in a particular day, I don't have to post EVERYTHING every day. The alarm goes off in the morning at 7 AM.  Usually, Annabelle is already nursing when it goes off, so I am already awake.  She typically falls back asleep nursing.  Around 7:15 I am done feeding her and get up and get dressed.  After taking all my pills that have to be taken on an empty stomach (thyroid, fish oil, etc) I pump any leftover milk for Kezzy.  Annabelle typically wakes back up at around 7:45 at which point I change her diaper and get her dressed f...

Annabelle Katelyn 9 lbs 0 oz 21" long 14 1/2 inch head Born at 7:01 PM on July 26, 2011 After 2 weeks of start and stop "prodominal" labor, Annabelle was finally born!  I got up at about 8:30 Tuesday morning as Thad left for work.  I got Titus his breakfast, took my thyroid, and then right at 9 had a very strong contraction.  I had been having stop and start strings of contractions for 2 weeks, so at first I didn't think anything of it.  I continued about my morning, but just a few min later, I was hit with another one, and these were painful enough right from the start that I found myself telling the kids to leave me alone.  At 9:30, I called and gave Thad the heads up that if contractions stuck, I might be calling him home in an hour.  At 9:45, I called him back and said Come home NOW, followed by a call to my midwife, and a text to my friend Trudie who would be watching the kids.  Several people had predicted that with this being my 4th baby, ...

No, not the newest baby.  Here are some newborn pictures of the first 3.  They all 3 look so different, yet they look alike at the same time.  I can't help wondering if Annabelle will look like one of her siblings when she is born.  Raquelle - 2 weeks old Titus - 1 day old Keziah - 1 day old

This last week, I've been trying to start getting things ready around here.  Ready for a new baby, and also ready for next school year.  I am just about done picking out curriculum for Raquelle and Titus.  Titus surprised us and started sounding out simple words.  He is doing very well in the Kindergarten Hooked On Phonics workbook.  After not ever wanting to do any preschool, suddenly he is asking every day to do school...and when we finish, he asks if he can do more.  He is counting quite well with minimal help all the way to 100!  So I decided to start him in Kindergarten in the fall.  I already have the Abeka kindergarten readers from Raquelle and the Bob books.  We were given Horizon kindergarten math for him and he will share Raquelle's science and history books. Raquelle's schooling is tricky.  After reading a book to my mom, my mom informed me that her reading fluency is about on a 5th grade level.  However, she hasn't had...

Though I had good intentions to keep this blog active and post a couple times every month, the reality is that at 35 weeks pregnant, with 3 kids of my own plus daycare, it isn't exactly at the top of my agenda.  Things are starting to wind down now and the reality of how close Annabelle's birth is is starting to set in.  2 of my daycare kids are gone for the summer now.  I have a week and a half left with the other one and then I am off for 2 months.  Awana is done for the summer, this last swimming lesson session is done, Bible study is done and life is starting to slow down for the summer.  It's nice to have things a little slower paced, especially since I am moving at a little slower pace these days. I am amazed at this pregnancy.  I thought the end would be really hard because I had a hard time from about 26 to 30 weeks pregnant.  I had hip pain, sacroiliac issues, SPD, fatigue, etc.  However, now at 35 weeks pregnant, I actually feel better...